An efficient pulsed gas-discharge inductive CO2-laser with a radiation energy of 1.05 J has been developed for the first time. In this case, the pulse duration of the laser radiation was about 10 msec. The maximum efficiency of 21.1% was obtained at a radiation energy of 340 mJ. RF current pulses propagated along the inductor conductor and, thus, an inductive discharge was formed to create an inverse population at the infrared (IR) transitions of CO2* molecules. The temporal and energy characteristics of the radiation of the inductive CO2-laser depending on the duration of the pump pulse are investigated. The spatial characteristics and spectrum of the radiation of the developed laser are estimated. The divergence of the laser radiation was 0.52 mrad. The cross-sectional dimension of the laser output beam was about 35 mm in diameter. Keywords: inductive discharge in a mixture of gases, high-frequency modulation of the pump voltage, population inversion, output characteristics of laser radiation.

In model experiments the precision of measurement of laser ablation depth by one A scan was 5-20 microm, depending on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), whereas the precision of measurement of laser ablation depth as the integral characteristic of the ablated layer profile was 0.3-5 microm. The experimental results showed that at small SNR Fourier filtering might considerably increase reliability and precision of measurements. When SNR is high, the measurement precision does not change. The precision of measurements of the corneal thickness in preliminary in vivo experiments was higher than in ex vivo experiments. This factor is very promising for application of the method suggested herein in refractive surgery.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract